The Body of Christopher Creed
Encyclopedia
The Body of Christopher Creed is a young adult novel by Carol Plum-Ucci
. It tells the story of a high school student whose life becomes unraveled when he tries to solve the mystery of a classmate's disappearance. The novel won the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award
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Torey, with friends, reads the email from Chris. It hints at both suicide and running away. The email also mentions Torey and one of his friends, among other classmates, as guys who have "everything". This makes Torey more concerned about Creed's disappearance and what has become of him.
At school, Torey begins to feel alienated from his friends Alex, Ryan, Renee, and girlfriend Leandra when they joke about Chris's disappearance and seem to take it lightly. The character Ali McDermott is introduced when she talks to Torey about Creed and asks him to come over that night, as she wants to show him something.
At Ali's house, Torey discovers that her home life is awful. He also meets Ali's boyfriend, Bo Richardson. Bo is a "boon" (a somewhat derogatory term in the community that refers to a group of students at their school who come from poorer homes and are avoided by the others, including Torey and his friends) who had injured Chris previously. After introductions the three begin to talk about Chris. Ali's window has a clear view into Chris's bedroom, and she describes seeing Chris hide a diary in a picture frame on the wall, the only place safe from his mother's prying eyes. Ali expresses her suspicions that Mrs. Creed had something to do with her son's disappearance, and the group becomes convinced that the evidence they need will be found in the diary.
Torey comes up with a plan: he will go to a nearby payphone and call the Creeds, demanding that they come meet him and bring money in exchange for information about Chris. Meanwhile, Bo will break in and take the diary. The plan backfires, and all three are brought to police headquarters. Torey's mother, a lawyer, intervenes, saving them from prosecution for the time being. However, Bo confesses to the phone call despite his innocence. Ali and her younger brother, Greg, spend the night at the Adams' house upon Bo's insistence. At the Adams' home Torey's mother hands Ali a notebook that Bo claimed was Ali's. It is actually Chris's diary, that reveals he had a girlfriend named Isabella. The diary claims that Isabella is a shy, quiet girl who had a romantic and intimate relationship with Chris over the summer. They also discover in the diary that Isabella and Chris went to a psychic and learned that one of them would die in the woods.
At school the next day, Torey becomes further distanced from his friends. Renee and Ryan question them about Bo Richardson. He successfully avoids his friends but leaves home sick during the school day. Ali comes to his house after school and tells Torey that Bo has been arrested. Leandra calls Torey and when Ali picks up the phone she accuses him of sleeping with Ali. Torey and Ali go to meet Bo, but run into several of Torey's friends, resulting in an altercation, whereupon Bo reveals to Ryan and Renee that their father, chief of police, had cheated on their mother with Mrs. McDermott.
Later, Torey finds Isabella in the telephone book, calls her, and leaves a message saying that Torey is looking for Chris and wants any information she has. After making the call Torey falls asleep, forgetting the call. Torey ignores his old friends and now ex-girlfriend at lunch; he and Ali sit with some "boons" instead. During lunch, the police, and Mrs. Creed, burst in to take Bo for questioning. Ali and Torey protest; both confess to the phone call, but the adults don't believe them and assume they are simply covering for Bo. In the principal's office, Torey attempts to explain to Mrs. Creed that Chris was socially awkward, but she still believes her son had "a very good life" and could not have wanted to kill himself or run away.
A few days later when Torey returns home from school he finds a message from Isabella on his answering machine telling him to "come over anytime" to talk about Chris. Ali and Torey then take a trip to Isabella's house and find out that she did not have a relationship with him but did have sex with him. Ali and Torey discover that Chris faked the whole relationship and wrote down the false information in his diary. Isabella also has Torey and Ali meet her psychic, Aunt Vera who proceeds to warn Torey that when he is alone he "will find him. In the woods."
Upon returning to the Adams' home, Ali and Torey decide to go to the woods to see if they can find Chris's body. They don't find him. When Torey gets home, he receives a call from his friend Alex, asking him to meet up. When they meet behind Torey's house, Alex indirectly accuses Torey of being an accessory to Chris Creed's alleged murder. When they finish arguing with each other, Torey ventures into the dark woods alone.
When Torey turns to return home, he sees an Indian Spirit, a memory from his childhood. Torey follows it, and ends up in an old Indian burial ground. He breaks his leg when a boulder falls on it, forcing him to crawl into a grave. He sees neatly wrapped bodies, but spots a human body that isn't like the others. When he gets closer, he immediately thinks it is Chris, though it's really Bob Haines. Suddenly, air rushes through the space where Torey had crawled in, and the corpse starts peeling apart. Torey is traumatized and sent a mental hospital to recover. Since he can't stand the Steepleton gossip, he finished his junior year of high school at home.
Torey realizes through the course of the story that truth changes with each person's perspective. Torey ends his narration of the novel by stating that Chris's body was never found, but he does show some hope, through letters from people he thought could be Chris in disguise.
Carol Plum-Ucci
Carol Plum-Ucci is a young adult novelist and essayist. Plum-Ucci’s most famous work to date is The Body of Christopher Creed, for which she won a Michael L. Printz Award in 2002 and was named a Finalist to the Edgar Allan Poe Award...
. It tells the story of a high school student whose life becomes unraveled when he tries to solve the mystery of a classmate's disappearance. The novel won the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award
Michael L. Printz Award
The Michael L. Printz Award is an annual award in the United States for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a school librarian from Topeka, Kansas, who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association...
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Character List
- Victor ”Torey” Adams, a senior at the fictional Rothborne a boarding school, is the narrator of the novel. What begins as mild interest in Chris's disappearance turns into wanting to help solve the mystery Chris's leaving. Torey is conflicted throughout the book between his friends and those who want to help find Chris. At the beginning of the novel Torey is described as “just your basic guy” and wears his hair in a ponytail during senior year.
- Bo Richardson, a tough rebel from the boondocks of Steepleton has ”a good guy streak that [is] just as wide, probably wider, than his bad guy streak.” He has a mean exterior but cares deeply for his girlfriend Ali McDermott, her brother Greg, and his own siblings. Bo is very angry at Mrs. Creed for accusing him of the murder of her son, and is determined to prove his innocence. This is his reason in the novel for investigating Chris’s disappearance.
- Christopher “Chris” Creed, the “weird guy” from Steepleton, turns up missing after sending an e-mail to Glen Ames hinting at running away or suicide.
- Isabella Karzden, a laid-back waitress, with whom Chris had an imaginary relationship. She admits to helping Chris lose his virginity but makes it clear when introduced in the novel that she did not have a relationship with him.
- Sylvia Creed, Chris Creed’s mother, who accuses Bo Richardson of murdering her son.
- Alex Arrington,is the best friend of Torey Adams. He plays football and is in a band with Torey. During the novel he begins to believe that Chris is dead and says to Torey about Bo and Torey,“the two of you shot him in the woods”. This is the instigator of an argument that causes Alex and Torey’s friendship to collapse at the end of the novel.
- Leandra, a cute, cheerleader with “long reddish hair” who, at the beginning of the novel, is Torey Adams’ girlfriend. She goes to the “Pentecostal church every Sunday,” but by “Monday [she is] calling people ‘dirtbag’ and ‘turbo slut”. These actions cause Torey to question their relationship. Later in the novel she and Torey break up because of his involvement with the Christopher Creed case and friendship Ali McDermott.
- Dr. Fahdi, the appointed psychiatrist that is hired to help Torey Adams after seeing Bob Haines’ body quickly decompose. He is the person who urged Torey to write his story down and try to find Chris Creed.
- Mrs. McDermott,a mother to Ali and Greg McDermott, who had relationships with many men which caused her divorce.
- Leo, a senior who goes to school with Torey and doesn’t care a bout privacy or personal space. He is “just a little sideways” as described by Torey.
- Carthright,a senior and prankster who is Torey Adams’ roommate at the fictional school Rothborne. He only knows “bits and pieces” of Torey’s story about Chris.
- Mr. Creed, father of Chis Creed and husband of Mrs.Creed,
- Bob Haines, father of Digger Haines who had “always wanted Digger”, his son,”to go into the Marine Corps”. After Digger was unable to join his life went downhill and later he shot himself in a Lenape burial cave, to be found by Torey Adams.
- Digger Haines, son of Bob Haines, who “lost his leg” in a motorcycle accident. He went on to leave Steepleton and become a lawyer.
- Glen Ames, the reasonable principal of Steepleton’s high-school and was a friend of Digger Haines. He was the recipient of Chris’s suicide/run away e-mail.
Plot summary
Torey Adams, the narrator, moves to a new town and begins his senior year at Rothborne, a boarding school. As he starts thinking about how his year will be, he remembers how strange his junior year was, in particular, his former classmate Christopher Creed, who disappeared without a trace, except an email to the principal.Torey, with friends, reads the email from Chris. It hints at both suicide and running away. The email also mentions Torey and one of his friends, among other classmates, as guys who have "everything". This makes Torey more concerned about Creed's disappearance and what has become of him.
At school, Torey begins to feel alienated from his friends Alex, Ryan, Renee, and girlfriend Leandra when they joke about Chris's disappearance and seem to take it lightly. The character Ali McDermott is introduced when she talks to Torey about Creed and asks him to come over that night, as she wants to show him something.
At Ali's house, Torey discovers that her home life is awful. He also meets Ali's boyfriend, Bo Richardson. Bo is a "boon" (a somewhat derogatory term in the community that refers to a group of students at their school who come from poorer homes and are avoided by the others, including Torey and his friends) who had injured Chris previously. After introductions the three begin to talk about Chris. Ali's window has a clear view into Chris's bedroom, and she describes seeing Chris hide a diary in a picture frame on the wall, the only place safe from his mother's prying eyes. Ali expresses her suspicions that Mrs. Creed had something to do with her son's disappearance, and the group becomes convinced that the evidence they need will be found in the diary.
Torey comes up with a plan: he will go to a nearby payphone and call the Creeds, demanding that they come meet him and bring money in exchange for information about Chris. Meanwhile, Bo will break in and take the diary. The plan backfires, and all three are brought to police headquarters. Torey's mother, a lawyer, intervenes, saving them from prosecution for the time being. However, Bo confesses to the phone call despite his innocence. Ali and her younger brother, Greg, spend the night at the Adams' house upon Bo's insistence. At the Adams' home Torey's mother hands Ali a notebook that Bo claimed was Ali's. It is actually Chris's diary, that reveals he had a girlfriend named Isabella. The diary claims that Isabella is a shy, quiet girl who had a romantic and intimate relationship with Chris over the summer. They also discover in the diary that Isabella and Chris went to a psychic and learned that one of them would die in the woods.
At school the next day, Torey becomes further distanced from his friends. Renee and Ryan question them about Bo Richardson. He successfully avoids his friends but leaves home sick during the school day. Ali comes to his house after school and tells Torey that Bo has been arrested. Leandra calls Torey and when Ali picks up the phone she accuses him of sleeping with Ali. Torey and Ali go to meet Bo, but run into several of Torey's friends, resulting in an altercation, whereupon Bo reveals to Ryan and Renee that their father, chief of police, had cheated on their mother with Mrs. McDermott.
Later, Torey finds Isabella in the telephone book, calls her, and leaves a message saying that Torey is looking for Chris and wants any information she has. After making the call Torey falls asleep, forgetting the call. Torey ignores his old friends and now ex-girlfriend at lunch; he and Ali sit with some "boons" instead. During lunch, the police, and Mrs. Creed, burst in to take Bo for questioning. Ali and Torey protest; both confess to the phone call, but the adults don't believe them and assume they are simply covering for Bo. In the principal's office, Torey attempts to explain to Mrs. Creed that Chris was socially awkward, but she still believes her son had "a very good life" and could not have wanted to kill himself or run away.
A few days later when Torey returns home from school he finds a message from Isabella on his answering machine telling him to "come over anytime" to talk about Chris. Ali and Torey then take a trip to Isabella's house and find out that she did not have a relationship with him but did have sex with him. Ali and Torey discover that Chris faked the whole relationship and wrote down the false information in his diary. Isabella also has Torey and Ali meet her psychic, Aunt Vera who proceeds to warn Torey that when he is alone he "will find him. In the woods."
Upon returning to the Adams' home, Ali and Torey decide to go to the woods to see if they can find Chris's body. They don't find him. When Torey gets home, he receives a call from his friend Alex, asking him to meet up. When they meet behind Torey's house, Alex indirectly accuses Torey of being an accessory to Chris Creed's alleged murder. When they finish arguing with each other, Torey ventures into the dark woods alone.
When Torey turns to return home, he sees an Indian Spirit, a memory from his childhood. Torey follows it, and ends up in an old Indian burial ground. He breaks his leg when a boulder falls on it, forcing him to crawl into a grave. He sees neatly wrapped bodies, but spots a human body that isn't like the others. When he gets closer, he immediately thinks it is Chris, though it's really Bob Haines. Suddenly, air rushes through the space where Torey had crawled in, and the corpse starts peeling apart. Torey is traumatized and sent a mental hospital to recover. Since he can't stand the Steepleton gossip, he finished his junior year of high school at home.
Torey realizes through the course of the story that truth changes with each person's perspective. Torey ends his narration of the novel by stating that Chris's body was never found, but he does show some hope, through letters from people he thought could be Chris in disguise.